Bumbershoot 2009 (Seatte's Music & Arts Festival)-Day 1-Saturday, September 5
Posted by Brian Berry on 09.07.2009
One of the largest music & arts festivals in the world opens with music performances by De La Soul, OTEP, and Os Mutantes along with big name comedians David Cross, Sarah Silverman, and Aziz Ansari!
On first glance, the Bumbershoot Festival looks no different than most other multi-stage Summer Festivals. The 3-day, Seattle music and arts festival has its big name headliners (Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Katy Perry) some up and coming fringe acts (Vivian Girls, No Age, Gang Gang Dance) and a slew of bands covering every genre from country to metal to electronica. This is a family oriented event so it’s not uncommon to see an elderly lady walk through the De La Soul performance or 11 year old girls sitting front row for a raunchy comedy show (I witnessed both on Day 1). Once you get past the top of the marquee, you start noticing that this isn’t your run of the mill music festival.
The 74-acre Seattle Center hosted event showcases seven stages of music, three of comedy (Patton Oswalt, David Cross, and last second replacement Aziz Ansari just to name a few of the stand-up acts), 2 theatre and 1 literary arts stage, a film festival, tons of street performers and a vert ramp for extreme athletes. Not to mention all of the best entertainers in the Northwest U.S. performing arts scene are given a chance to strut their stuff and play full sets at some of Seattle’s best venues.
The only qualm you can come up with is scheduling your days to catch all of the talent listed on the program. For my taste, the line-up was a little soft on must see buzz bands this year but there was still plenty of entertainment from open to close. This was my 3rd trip from Northern California to Seattle for Bumbershoot and as always, I had a blast. This is what it looked like…
Bumbershmoze-Friday, September 4
For the 2nd year in a row, Bumbershoot hosted Bumberschmooze, a press and special guest event held the day before the festival. Performing this night were the Tyler Bryant Band fronted by a 15 year old blues guitar prodigy of the same name. The charismatic kid is looking to be groomed into the next John Mayer and has already been the subject of a documentary film. Blues guitar genius Joe Bonamassa, who joined Bryant on stage, and funk legend Bootsy Collins were in attendance for the performance.
WWE fan favorite band Sick Puppies headlined the event (both acts performed at Day 1 of the fest) with their brand of dated, albeit well executed nu-metal. Fans of the genre ate it up, while the majority of the crowd headed home to rest up for the official festival.
Day 1-Saturday, September 5
Walking through the gates around noon, I couldn’t deny the abundance of SWAG everywhere. Backpacks, Clif Bars, bottled water, keychains, headbands, posters, Emergen-C packets, blankets…visiting Bumbershoot and opening up a resale store on eBay of all the free shit you collect would be a lucrative move. This money will be needed for the rest of the weekend seeing that the hand dipped corn dogs have DOUBLED IN PRICE TO $4!! The best food buy this year appears to be the nearly 1 pound Philly Cheese Steak for $6.50. One is enough to stave off hunger for most of the day.
Every newscaster in the greater Seattle area guaranteed rain all day today but thankfully there were only a couple scattered, light showers.
Today’s headliners were Katy Perry, All-American Rejects, Old ‘97s, and Sheryl Crow. No thanks.
12:15pm-Singer/songwriter Kristen Ward brought in a large crowd early on with her alt-country sound, bringing to mind Neko Case.
1:15pm-“Next big thing” local band Telekinesis (recently signed to Merge Records, home of Arcade Fire and Spoon) played the private KEXP Music Lounge to press, contest winners, and premium pass holders. These guys write great indie-pop tunes with shades of The Decemberists, The Kinks, and The Strokes. The banter moment of the weekend came when their singer/drummer quipped, “I’m kinda bummed that we’re missing Katy Perry. Anyone else bummed?”
2:00pm-The first headlining stand-up comedy show of the day features Tommy Johnagin (lots of jokes about his family-funny enough), Wyatt Cenac from The Daily Show (he’s the Black guy on the show, lots of jokes about not being Black enough-funnier), and the headliner was nut job Maria Bamford from the Comedians of Comedy (inventive, irreverent humor that changed subjects at the turn of a second…great impersonations and easily the strongest performance of the three). Host Pete Holmes from VH1’s Best Week Ever warmed up the crowd with a safe, but funny enough set.
3:30pm-Massy Ferguson performed a set of grungy country, not unlike Lucero. The band was a welcome surprise (as is much at a festival like this) while waiting in line for an intimate performance by Brazilian legends Os Mutantes in the KEXP Music Lounge.
4:15pm-The line for ‘60s Psychedelic/Tropicalia legends Os Mutantes passed down almost a dozen food stands. It was fucking crazy how many people came out for this band who waded in obscurity up until a decade ago when David Byrne rereleased their very strong early work (get their self-titled debut or the ‘best of’ album Everything is Possible NOW). The band went on a half hour late due to, well, showing up late-as well as some sound difficulties, but the large band captivated the crowd for their 25-minute of mainly of early work including “Bat Machumba” and “Baby”. A standing ovation led to a rare encore on this stage. This was the musical highlight of the day.
5:30pm-The second comedy show came from Flight of the Conchords and Sub Pop recording artist Eugene Mirman with MYSTERY GUEST. Bumbershoot always delivers a huge name when it comes to mystery (last year David Cross and Janeane Garafaolo filled in these slots) so this show couldn’t be missed.
After Pete Holmes performed his hosting set, out came SARAH SILVERMAN to a standing ovation from the crowd. She was overwhelmed and a little embarrassed by the praise, and rightfully so. Her piss, fart, and menstruation humor has always relied on the contrast of being cute while using vulgar material. This performance was no different with a lame song where she sang the word “cunt” over and over, while the rest of the set completely bombed. The highlight came when Silverman accidentally tripped over a stage prop on the way off the stage in what can only be described as an act of God for her epic fail on stage. After the show, many people were overheard talking about her poor set. Eugene Mirman cleaned up her mess by delivering an excellent set of irreverent humor. The Russian comedian passed out personalized Father’s Day cards at the close of his set with bizarre quips such as “Thanks for not being like the dad in Dead Poets Society”. Hopefully, the MYSTERY GUEST on Day Two isn’t Silverman.
7:15pm-More comedy? Sure! Nick Swardson (Terry on Reno 911) canceled due to a scheduling conflict a couple days before the fest but organizers got the greater than Swardson comedian Aziz Ansari (Human Giant, Funny People, Parks & Recreation) to fill in. This show was hosted by nice guy comedian Tony Camin who became the second comedian of the day to trip while exiting the strange, wharf like set on stage (apparently a one-woman play is being performed here after the festival). He looked hurt as he scrambled off stage. Red Wine Boys (funnymen duo Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin) opened the show. Their improvised comedic odes to red wine were hot and cold, with half of their act falling flat. The worst segment featured a confused looking Sarah Silverman coming out to torture Benjamin with “wine boarding”. She didn’t know what the fuck she was doing and her improvisation skills were awful.
Ansari closed the show with a hilarious, yet short set (Red Wine Boys went over their set time). The up and coming comedian’s set was highlighted by a story about meeting Kanye West and performing for him at a private house party.
8:30pm-You don’t want to miss any of the comedy at Bumbershoot so I tried to pack most of it all into today. Patton Oswalt and Charlene Yi (Knocked Up) canceled out of the blue today so they were replaced by DAVID CROSS (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Eugene Mirman. I caught a few bits that Mirman just performed a couple hours ago before David Cross was out to deliver a killer set on the fly. Cross is a God in the alt-comedy world, best known for his work on HBO’s Mr. Show, Arrested Development, and the criminally underrated film Run Ronnie Run. His jokes covered self –righteousness at Whole Foods Market, the hypocrisies of anti-health care reformists, and his life long battle with depression (“I found out last week, this whole time, I just has a rock in my shoe!).
9:00pm-Metal band OTEP played indoors at the Exhibition Hall. They are fronted by a lesbian vegan. She is fucking scary and pantomimes shooting herself in the head constantly with a gun made out of her hand. Her rhythm section delivered chunky blasts of noise and a double bass drum kick. The circle pit was impressive for the show, which was probably the lowest attended show I saw all day. Nonetheless, the quartet was well received despite the house lights being left on for the show. I left after the singer prompted audience members to beat up anybody who was standing still. Nine hours into the day, I could hardly move let alone mosh, so I got out of the building quickly.
9:30pm-Apparently The Long Winters are now an Americana band. They were better before when they played straight up indie-rock. This was too confusing for my tired mind so I left.
9:454pm-De La Soul came out to the largest crowd all day…and this wasn’t even on the main stage! They celebrated the 20th anniversary of the seminal hip-hop album 3 Feet High and Rising by performing the entire album with a full live band. Their set was sensational, with lots of hands in the air, call and response, and other cliches of hip-hop shows. This was another highlight of the day.
That was it for Saturday. Two more days to go. Tomorrow is highlighted by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a few other surprises. Check back in to see what happened the rest of the weekend!
The 411: Highlights included sets by Os Mutantes and De La Soul as well as Aziz Ansari and Eugene Mirman's comedy acts. Sarah Silverman's surprise appearance wasn't funny at all and brought down an otherwise very good first day.
